"Come on, Ti-gress, we'd better tell Mrs. Stone what's wrong with her horse."

Anne had no idea what was wrong with the horse, but walked beside him, stifling an urge to skip. He wasn't hurt, he'd ridden the horse, and all these fool people were disappointed once more.

She listened to Cord explain to Mrs. Stone that the sellers had misled her as to the horse's bitting and how he thought they'd done it. Exceptionally sensitive, the horse fought, and when they tried to control him with more severe bits, he fought harder.

Resentment eventually affected even his att.i.tude in the stall, and when people who were afraid of him began pushing him around with a broom or shovel, everything escalated. He never glanced at Lennie as he said this.

Mrs. Stone was not happy. "But I ride all my horses in double bridles with curb bits.

A plain snaffle is too crude for the kind of riding I do."

Anne almost interrupted to point out that considering the demonstration she had just seen, this was patently ridiculous, but managed to bite her tongue. Of course, Cord didn't point it out.

He said, "Well, ma'am, the horse is touchy, and he's always going to be that way."

"Could you get him to go properly with a curb bit? I'll pay you well, or you can have additional breedings if you'd prefer."

"Yeah, I can, but you should realize he's always going to be an extra sensitive horse.

He might not be something you're going to want to bother with."

"I see." She was frowning, obviously not happy with any of this. "Well, suppose you take him and at least get him to where he can be safely ridden, and then if I don't like him for myself, I'll be able to sell him. I certainly can't do that the way he is now."

Cord glanced at Anne, who wiggled her eyebrows in a "whatever you want" kind of way.

"It will take about two months," he said. "Suppose we breed one mare for each month."

Virginia Stone held out one slim gloved hand, and they again shook hands. John Stone looked absolutely disgusted as they rode out, Cord leading the big red horse beside Keeper.

The whole Bennett clan was waiting for them at the end of the driveway. "How about lunch at our house?" asked Ephraim.

Cord had mentioned a steak at the cafe to Anne earlier, but then they hadn't expected to be bringing the stallion home with them. He said, "Yeah, sounds good, if we can put the red horse in a stall in your barn."

Anne knew right then that Cord was no more going to refer to this stallion as "Firebrand" than he would call Willie "Sweet William."

So it was off to Ephraim's for lunch. When they were all in their familiar places around the table, Luke pulled a small sheaf of twenty-dollar bills from his pocket and presented them to her with a flourish. "Here's your ill-gotten gains, ma'am."

Anne had forgotten the bet. "But I only bet twenty dollars."

"The odds were five to one."

She had only the vaguest concept of odds, and Luke happily enlightened her. At the end of his explanation, she heard Cord drawl in a way she didn't like the sound of at all, "Where'd you get twenty dollars, Annie?"

"I borrowed from Frank - against my Grenerton money." Reminded by her own words, she handed one of the twenties to Frank.

There was a lot of chatter over lunch, but it was mostly Pete and Luke reviewing the morning's happenings. Anne was as quiet as Cord, and when Martha and Judith refused her help with the dishes, they left immediately. In the barn, Cord turned on her as she'd known he would.

"What the h.e.l.l would you use to get to Grenerton if you'd lost your twenty dollars?"

The taut skin around his eyes told her he was angry, but she could not for the life of her decide why. "You know as well as I do I'm never going to Grenerton, so what's the difference?"

"Never's a long time."

Reason wasn't going to get her far. Perhaps this was as good a time as any to mention something that was bothering her.

"You know, I've begun to wonder lately. Are you so determined that I'm going to leave sooner or later because that's what you want? Do you figure you're going to get tired of having me around, or are you feeling that way already, and you want to make sure you don't have to feel guilty when you throw me out in a snowdrift when the time comes?"

He studied her face carefully, and she could see the tight look disappearing from around his eyes. "You know better than that."

"Why should I know better than that? If you can nurse absurd notions, why can't I?

Maybe you'd just better face the fact that you're stuck with me. When you're ninety years old you're going to wake up in the morning, and there I'll be - with white hair and wrinkles - and you'll still be stuck."

She could see the smile start around his eyes. He didn't really answer her. "I suppose you did all right today anyway. Now your Grenerton money will get you to Denver."

Drat him. He really was stubborn.

THE FRIENDS WHO HAD QUIETLY snooped around and asked questions about the Bennetts on Edward Wells' behalf all reported pretty much the same thing. No matter how the family felt about its black sheep, you couldn't count on them standing aside if he was in trouble. In fact it would be more likely that any threat to a member of the family would have the whole bunch of them standing shoulder to shoulder against the outsider.

One of Edward's friends had known old Jamie Bennett himself and informed Edward sagely, "Jamie didn't raise no weaklings. People are all afraid of that 'breed, but even the lawyer son, you make him pick up a gun, and he'll remember how to use it. Frank now, he was the next best thing to a gunman before he settled down. They say those two young ones, Luke and Pete, are almost as bad. Everything I hear, your daughter kind of likes that Injun, Ed, maybe you ought to just let it be."

Edward's frigid glare cut this line of conversation dead, but the fact had to be faced, a direct frontal a.s.sault was out. Ike Handler had been right, the thing to do was to convince the d.a.m.n Indian and his family that Anne had wanted to return to her family and had done just that.

It shouldn't be hard to fool an ignorant savage. Some care would need to be taken because of his educated white relatives. Edward began an involved correspondence with his sister Clara in Chicago.

CHAPTER 27.

TWO WEEKS LATER VIRGINIA STONE was back in Martha's kitchen on Sunday afternoon. What she wanted this time was just plain impossible, but Anne kept quiet, knowing Cord would turn her down flat.

"I've decided to sell Firebrand as soon as he you think he's progressed enough," she said. "My husband really wants that, and he wants him in the July race. If he can win the race, or even make a good showing, we'll get a much better price. John hopes we can get as much as I paid."

Anne expected Cord to just say no, but instead he made a brief attempt at reasoning with her. "Mrs. Stone, that race is designed to cripple or kill. It won't help you sell him if he's lame for the rest of his life - or dead."

The woman didn't look happy, but she was obviously determined to do what her husband wanted.

"John doesn't believe the risk is that great compared to the possible gain. I've given him my word. I will sell the horse to the first person who offers at least what I paid. We'd like you to ride him in the race since you get along with him so well."

"Ma'am, people bring some of the fastest horses in the state to that race, and your horse isn't as fast as some of what will be here. He wasn't bred for speed, was he?"

"He was bred as a hunter, but he's from excellent lines, and John believes...." Her voice tapered off as she watched Cord just get up and walk out.

Turning to Anne, Mrs. Stone said, "Is he always that rude? I can't believe such behavior, and after all, he owes us...."

Anne cut her off sharply. "We don't owe you anything, and he walked out to avoid saying something very rude. Your ears would probably burn. We're both very fond of that horse already, and you're asking him to put himself and the horse in danger over a foolish notion."

"I believe you do owe me. Our agreement was that you would use Firebrand for one mare for each month your husband worked my horse, and you've already done that, haven't you?"

"One mare. We used him for one mare, and Cord earned that right the day he first rode the horse. He's been adamant about not using the horse for the other mares until after the right is earned, and I thought he was being too careful. Silly me."

Balked at using what she had thought was a weapon to get her own way, Mrs. Stone tried honey. "Well, I know you can talk to him. It's really very important to John and me.

Won't you help persuade him, dear?"

"I'm not going to try to persuade him to do anything that he feels is wrong. He'll think it over for himself, but you'd better count on having the horse back in your barn next Sunday, if not sooner."

Mrs. Stone opened the outside door and looked back from the doorway. "My husband thinks we can continue to exercise the horse the way we have been, between two saddle horses, and a good rider will be able to just get on him the day of the race."

"Good luck. I bet that will double his value all right."

The door shut almost hard enough to be a slam, but not quite. Virginia Stone was after all, the quintessential lady.

Leona chastised her daughter. "Anne, dear, you shouldn't be speaking that way to someone like Mrs. Stone."

"And what does that mean, Mother? Perhaps I should only be making respectful, agreeable comments in between licks at her boots?"

This brought Rob to his feet. "Don't you dare speak to Mother like that. You know perfectly well you should speak to a lady like Mrs. Stone with respect, and you know why. Since you've been living with that degenerate you've lost all signs of a decent upbringing. You act and talk like a guttersnipe. Someone needs to take you in hand and remind you of your manners!"

Cord wore hard soled boots on Sundays, but he still moved so quietly he had the door open enough to hear Rob before anyone knew he was back. "I hope you don't think you might be that 'someone,'" he growled.

Rob paled and spun to face him. "I suppose you think it's funny, don't you? Not only have you ruined her so she can never live with decent people here in Mason again. By the time you're finished she'll have the speech and manners of a common saloon girl and won't fit in anywhere."

Cord leaned back against the wall beside the door. "Annie, why don't you wait for me in the barn. I think it's time your brother and I had a talk."

She walked out without a murmur.

Rob took an involuntary step backwards, and everyone started looking uncomfortable.

"I said talk, boy. Just calm down."

"I'm not a boy, and I don't want to talk to you."

"Too bad. Listen. I know the sheriff told the bunch of you what happened last fall, but he could only tell what he knew and the ladies made him kind of shy, so I'm going to make sure you understand what happened to your sister. The ladies can leave. You're going to listen."

Keeping his voice flat, he threw the facts at Rob like stones. "Your father beat her till she was hanging almost unconscious in Samuels' arms. Her face was so swollen you wouldn't have recognized her, and she was running blood from the nose and mouth. Your father wanted an excuse so he could still force her to marry Detrick, and the rest wanted an excuse to hang me, but she wouldn't tell the lie they needed. So they all looked the other way while Samuels pawed her, took a knife and cut her dress open. She's got a scar down her back from her hairline to her waist. Craig said it should have been st.i.tched, but there was no one to st.i.tch it, was there? The b.a.s.t.a.r.d bit her all over the face, neck, and shoulders - her skin was broken. She had bruises from her neck to her knees. He even tried to jam a couple of fingers...."

"Stop." Rob's jaw was clenching and unclenching in ridges.

"I'm not through yet. Samuels finally stopped because she was vomiting up the first food she had in days. He threw her away from him on her knees in the mud, and she was still there when your father pulled her head up and told her he was leaving her there to 'repent.' Your nice neat military father didn't want her riding double on a horse with him like that, b.l.o.o.d.y and stinking."

Rob looked pasty white and his hands were shaking slightly. He didn't answer, but then Cord didn't expect him to.

"So they left her there with what was supposed to be a dead man, and when she found I was alive, she got me into the house somehow. You have any idea what that was like for your lady-raised sister? I was unconscious for days. She was spooning liquid in me, and cleaning up the mess when it came out. Want to hear about the b.l.o.o.d.y pools I'd wake up in? Two days later they came back to steal what they could thinking I was dead and the place was empty. Want to hear what Meeks said they'd do to her when they found her there?"

"Cord, please, please, stop." It was the first time Leona ever addressed him.

He didn't even glance at her. "Fact is she found all those tea and crumpet lady manners didn't spare her a lot of misery she didn't deserve, and they wouldn't have kept her or me alive either. So she threw them away. So if she doesn't fit some idea you have of how she should act any more, that's too d.a.m.n bad. If she wants to yell and curse or jump up and down or do anything else, she earned the right. And you've earned nothing, absolutely nothing, so you keep your mouth shut around her or I'll shut it for you."

Then he was gone as soundlessly as he'd come, leaving a roomful of stunned, queasy people.

Leona was close to tears. "Rob, take me home, please."

When they were gone, Frank ran his fingers through his hair and said, "That explains some of it. He thinks he owes her. I've never heard so many consecutive words out of him in his life."

Ephraim said, "Maybe he does owe her."

"She brought the trouble to him."

"That's not fair, Frank. It was more like a rockslide that caught them both."

"Maybe. It's a lousy basis for a marriage."

ANNE HAD STARTED HARNESSING WILLIE as soon as she got to the barn. They couldn't start home soon enough for her. By the time Cord joined her, the horse was ready to put to the buggy.

He said, "I'm sorry, Annie, I came back because I realized I left you in the middle of it."

She tried to smile at him, but it was a feeble effort. "I should have had the sense to leave with you."

Cord walked over to her, and she burrowed against his neck. He held her hard, and she caught the scent of him, of soap, and the fresh Sunday shirt, felt the warm solid strength of his chest and shoulder and was comforted.

His voice rumbled under her ear. "Gave you a rough time, did they?"

"Not that bad, really. It upsets me what she's going to do to Red, and I was short with her, and Rob started in on how a social failure like me shouldn't be rude to a paragon like Mrs. Stone."

His lips were gentle at her temple. "I don't know much about ladies, Annie, but seems like it's supposed to be more what's inside you that matters, and you've got more cla.s.s than that poor woman with all her fancy airs will ever know about."

A contented sigh escaped her. "Maybe you should have been a doctor. You really know how to fix the hurt."

"Mm. You're the only one ever thought so. Come on, let's get Willie hitched and get out of here before they all come boiling out of the house, sure I'm torturing you."

Anne managed a real laugh at this, but as soon as they were clear of town she rode the rest of the way home with her head on his shoulder.

For two days, neither Cord nor Anne mentioned the fact that the red horse must go back to his owners. Cord had definite, and to Anne humorous, theories that most horses, given a choice, preferred women to men. She understood when he said women were lighter and not being as strong were less likely to try to use brute force, but when he started in on how women were softer and smelled better, she never could smother the giggles.

So, thinking Virginia Stone would want to ride the horse herself when it was returned to her, since the beginning of the stallion's stay with them, Cord worked the horse for an hour or so and then put Anne on him for her riding lesson. By the third ride all her reservations about the copper-colored horse dissolved. If he had sprouted the wings of Pegasus she could not have thought he was more wonderful.

The thought of returning Red to the Stones under these circ.u.mstances made Anne miserable. She knew Cord was no happier, but on Tuesday night he set the time.

"Suppose tomorrow morning we take him back."